The goal? remove alternatives, _any_ small defect = 'genius' telling you to buy new $1-2K device. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2_SZ4tfLns
I brought my out-of-warranty iPhone to the store last week because its battery was swelling, and they couldn't replace the battery due to employee safety issues. So they simply gave me a brand-new identical phone for the $29 battery replacement price.
In my experience, Apple goes further out of their way to give customers low-cost or even free replacements in far more cases than I've ever seen any other company do.
I've built my own PCs for a decade, every hardware manufacturer I've dealt with has a better RMA policy than Apple.
1 sold defective devices in the first place, hence 'battery replacement' program aka lets do something after ignoring years of public pressure, but just before big lawsuit comes (famous Fight Club recall equation).
2 designed products and procedures in such a way as to minimize the ability of repair by non specialized technical personnel. Glued parts, sneaky short holes and different length screws, LCD screens blowing backlight circuit if you unplug them without unplugging battery first, etc.
You should care because one day the issue you have will not impact thousands of customers and.or will not raise to the level that a class action lawsuit would be possible and you will be one of the thousands of people that have been screwed over by Apple's business practices...
I am sure this will fall of deaf ears though hopefully you will remember your attitude on this day when you are standing in front of a "Genius" refusing to help you
My experience: I replaced my laptop screen thru iFixit and the replacement part had a "soft focus" camera. It also has worse backlight bleed+a little bit less contrast than the official part, and a dead pixel.
They had good customer service and when I complained about the camera and they refunded me some money, but next time I will probably (begrudgingly) pay the Apple tax.
I took a 14 month old iPhone 7 into the store which wouldn't charge or communicate via the lightning port. In the engineer's words it was "in perfect condition".
They couldn't repair it, wouldn't do anything because I didn't have apple care and the only way to get around it was a new device.
Nice paperweight though
It could've been something trivial though, lint tends to pile up in the back of the lightning port, eventually causing the problem you described. Poking the back of the port with a needle or something often helps.
Tried cleaning it, there's no dirt or anything in there
I must say, I'm still wondering why Apple gets a pass on the "usb charging for all phones" laws.
From a business and service perspective, Apple repair must first fix the liquid damage that may be causing the dim screen. Replacing the screen without first fixing the liquid damage may simply reproduce the issue and/or damage a new screen.
The customer balks at the quoted price asks the Apple Genius Bar rep if there are other options.
The Genius Bar rep hesitates and informs the customer there are no other options under Apple repair.
Of course there are other options outside of Apple authorized repair, but it is likely against Apple policy to recommend an alternative (i.e. assuming indirect liability for poorly executed 3rd-party repairs).
That said, in this case it seems entirely reasonable for Apple repair to proceed by first fixing the most obvious damage that may be causing the issue. While this approach may be more expensive than is necessary, it's also more likely to produce the desired result if the issue were not caused by the screen itself.
Paying money for premium service is anathema to many consumer advocates, but Apple is well known to meet their obligations for devices protected by AppleCare while only doing the bare minimum for devices outside of warranty. From a practical standpoint, buying AppleCare is highly advisable given the likelihood of device failure inside of 3 years, the cost of repairing such failures, and (most importantly in my opinion) the extraordinarily high level of service Apple provides should something go wrong inside the warranty window.
I apologize if all the above seems like bias toward Apple, which I readily admit. I have been a customer of Apple for nearly 40 years and while I have sometimes been disappointed with some of Apple's polices and products, I have almost always felt well-treated by Apple repair.
[0] https://youtu.be/o2_SZ4tfLns?t=128
EDIT: Changes to penultimate paragraph to better highlight the value of AppleCare as a contractual service. Change "extraordinary" to "extraordinarily".
Apple's humidity sensors are known to go red in humid environments (like your pants pockets or your backpack on a hot day) whether there's liquid damage or not.
All Louis had to do was look at the motherboard to see the bent connector.
There was no liquid damage and the Apple "liquid damage" stickers should never be used as an actual indicator liquid damage, Apple put them on devices for legal cover when they wanted to deny warranty repairs not as a actual gauge for when a product was actually damaged by liquid. They are known to have a hair trigger and "activate" i.e change color in the presence of water vapor in the air (i.e high humidity common in some places where one would use a apple device)
The Apple "liquid damage" stickers is one in a LONG LONG LONG line of anti-consumer business practices
As for Android, there are a great many official repair locations. They simply aren't run by the phonemakers. As with cars, most repairs are done by licensed and trained repair shops (like UBreakIFix, for Samsungs).
Let's not give Apple false credit and distort the reality of how consumer electronics are repaired.